Tuesday primary
results: Murkowski in jeopardy, McCain wins big

Washington,
Aug. 25 – Alaska
Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R)
could become the third Senate incumbent ousted in a primary this
cycle as her underfunded challenger, attorney and Gulf war veteran
Joe
Miller,
took a stunning and unexpected lead in the race early Wednesday.

With
98 percent of precincts reporting, Miller – who had held a narrow
lead over his rival from the moment polls closed – led Murkowski
51% to 49%, a margin of about 1,960
votes. Miller
credited the support of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his lead
against a much better known and funded incumbent. Miller had spent
less than $200,000 as of early August, compared with more than $1.4
million for Murkowski.

The
Anchorage Daily News reports that “the final results of the race
won't be known for over a week. The Alaska Division of Elections said
over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested and as of Monday night
7,600 had been returned.” The first count of absentees will be
next Tuesday. There will be two subsequent counts as the absentee
votes trickle in on Sept. 3 and on Sept. 8.”

In
other primaries:

After
spending more than $20 million of his own money, Arizona Sen. John
McCain easily swept the GOP primary, beating conservative challenger
J. D. Hayworth by 56% to 32%. McCain will face Tucson City Councilman
Rodney
Glassman
(D) this fall.

Another
Quayle could in headed to Congress. Ben Quayle, the son of former
Vice President Dan Quayle, won the GOP primary in Arizona’s third
district. The
33-year-old North Phoenix lawyer won Tuesday's primary with just 23%
of the vote, five points clear of his nearest challenger, businessman
Steve Moak, who had 18%.

In
Florida, voters handed health care executive and Tea Party favorite
Rick
Scott an
upset victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Scott, who
spent more than $30 million of his own money on the race, defeated
state Attorney General Bill
McCollum
by winning 46% of the vote compared to McCollum’s 43%.

Scott will face Alex
Sink, the state's chief financial officer, who sailed to the
Democratic nomination.

Money
wasn’t enough to help billionaire investor Jeff
Greene
avoid a crushing defeat in the Democratic Senate primary race.
Florida Rep.
Kendrick Meek beat billionaire
investor Jeff Greene by a 57-31%
margin, setting
up a three-way battle in the fall with former state House Speaker
Marco Rubio
(R) and Gov. Charlie
Crist (I).

In Vermont, where
Gov. Jim Douglas (R) is retiring, Republicans nominated Lt. Gov.
Brian Dubie to succeed him, but there is no clear winner in the
crowded Democratic primary.

The Associated Press
is reporting of the 232 of 260 precincts, Peter Shumlin is currently
in the lead with 16,960 votes. Doug Racine is close behind, with
16,839. Deb Markowitz is reported to have 16,039 votes, with Matt
Dunne and Susan Bartlett rounding out the bottom, with 14,165 and
3,507 respectively.

Sen. Patrick Leahy
easily defeated Democratic rival Daniel Freilich by 89% to 11%, with
two-thirds of precincts reporting. Leahy will be a strong favorite
against Republican Len Britton in the November election.

In Oklahoma, James
Lankford defeated state Rep. Kevin Calvey in a runoff to be the GOP
nominee for the seat formerly held by Rep. Mary Fallin, who is now
the Republican nominee for Oklahoma Governor. With nearly 40 percent
of precincts reporting, Lankford had 62 percent of the vote and
Calvey had 39 percent.

Lankford will face Democrat Billy Coyle
in the general election. In this heavily conservative district,
though, the Republican primary is likely to be decisive.

In the state’s other primary race,
Charles Thompson defeated Daniel Edmonds by a 64-36% margin, winning
the right to oppose heavily favored Rep. Dan Boren (D).

This week’s guest on Open Mic is Rod Hebrink, President and CEO of Compeer Financial. The lack of certainty from a new farm bill and weak commodity prices due to lost export markets and robust supplies have left farmers and lenders with a grim outlook for 2019. In this interview, Hebrink discusses the challenge of the unknown and the need for legislators and the White House to take action on farm policy, trade and regulations to help rural America prepare for the year ahead.

The world of agriculture extends beyond what’s growing in your field or living in your barn, and here at Agri-Pulse, we understand that. We make it our duty to inform you of the most up-to-date agricultural and rural policy decisions being made in Washington D.C. and examine how they will affect you – the farmer, the lobbyist, the government employee, the educator, the consultant and the concerned citizen.